A historian's shot in the dark
By Dr. Michael R. Bowen
web posted November 12, 2001
A Mr. Bellesilses has published a book, Arming America, in
which he purports to show that the widespread possession and
use of firearms in the early days of our nation is actually a myth.
Through his historical research he claims to have found that gun
ownership was actually rare in the 18th and 19th centuries, and
that records show that the few privately owned firearms were
worn-out or broken relics. He contends that the present so-
called gun culture in America is actually a product of Hollywood
and the wider familiarity with guns resulting from World War II.
These findings have been sharply criticized by reputable scholars
on both sides of the gun debate. They have found that in many
cases the records cited by Mr. Bellesilses simply do not exist; in
other cases the records he cites show the opposite conclusion
from the one he claims. When asked to produce his data, he has
claimed that a basement flood destroyed his records, something
like "The dog ate the history of the 18th and 19th centuries." It
appears that Mr. Bellesilses' book will soon be shown on
scholarly grounds to be a sophisticated lie, but meanwhile even
non-scholars can easily recognize the flaws in his work. For
example, if war was the genesis of our familiarity with guns, then
the Revolution must have introduced "gun culture" to America in
her cradle. And those weren't bows and arrows that the
embattled farmers used at Lexington and Concord.
But it's another phenomenon I'd like to examine: the way a
nation's popular vocabulary gives great insight into its culture.
We are an automobile culture, so our language is full of
automotive expressions: step on the gas, hit the brakes, running
on empty, asleep at the wheel. Our culture is full of popular
music, and so we say "let's rock", or "let's boogie", and fawning
followers of public figures are called "groupies". Our fast-food
lifestyle has led us to append the prefix "Mac" to anything
produced cheaply in great volume; USA Today has been
referred to as "McPaper".
So it is with firearms in our culture. Many of the gun-related
expressions in our language are 18th and 19th century
expressions, referring to functions of firearms which have not
been in common use for more than a century. In fact, I'd be hard
pressed to find a colloquial expression based on modern
automatic weapons. Instead we have familiar expressions like
these:
Son of a gun. Don't go off half- cocked. Quick on the draw.
Keep your powder dry. "Bull's-eye", to describe an accurate
deduction. "Double-barreled", to describe something which does
two things at once, or has dual functions. "Pick off", a sniper's
expression, to describe the easy elimination of an exposed and
vulnerable target. A football expertly thrown a great distance is
said to have been "rifled". When a man retires after campaigning
vigorously for a cause, he is said to "Hang up his guns." A wild
guess is called a "shot in the dark". To improvise quickly is called
"shooting from the hip." A politician being stalked by investigative
reporters is said to be "in the cross-hairs." A person who acts
impulsively is called "trigger-happy."
Half-cocked refers to a mechanical feature of nineteenth-century
revolvers. Keeping one's powder dry, of course, dates back to
the black powder muzzleloading rifles of the 18th century and
earlier.
America's birth and expansion was brought about by
independent, enterprising individuals making a living far beyond
the reach, control, or support of civic institutions. These people
had to rely on themselves for everything, and that included
defense. The language they handed down to us is full of
references to the tools of their everyday life: horses, hatchets,
ropes, farming equipment. We accept these expressions as
echoes of our past; it's only when they refer to guns that we are
asked to suspend our common sense.
If our language is any indication of our culture, America was an
armed nation from its birth. Mr. Bellesilses is not an honest
historical scholar. He's a hired gun.
Dr. Michael Bowen, a former Naval officer, has a private
medical practice in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. He writes the
column "The Basics" for www.AmericasVoices.org, a
conservative political opinion and educational web site. His
columns also appear in other popular Internet sites, including
www.Opinionet.com and www.enterstageright.com. e-mail him
at MBowen@americasvoices.org. (c) 2001 by Dr. Michael R.
Bowen and America's Voices, Inc.
Enter Stage Right - http://www.enterstageright.com